The complex would provide places for 124 children aged up to five to receive daycare between 7am and 6pm weekdays.

Proposed by a company known as Australian Childcare Solutions it would include about 190 daily vehicle trips through the residential area of Bel-Air.

Protest co-ordinator Kylie Webster said the proposed entrance was on a tight bend, the traffic would be dangerous to local children and there were already two other childcare centres within one kilometre of the site.

Mrs Webster said Orange City Council rules prohibited an entrance to the site from Molong Road which meant all traffic would come through suburban streets.

She said the site had already been rejected as the site for a fast food restaurant, a petrol station and a nursing home.

“We have a safety concern for our children,” she said.

“Turner Crescent is not equipped to handle the extra flow of traffic from the parents, staff and other services such as couriers that will be dropping off supplies to the centre, making it a traffic hazard.”

Mrs Webster said Turner Crescent was already congested with parked cars during peak hour.

She said there were discrepancies in the development application regarding traffic studies, the number of car spaces needed and the ratio of staff to children.

Mrs Webster said they had contacted councillors and would send a delegation to the council’s next open forum meeting on April 4.

“Most of them didn’t know about it,” she said.

“They have just been brought up to speed.

“Most of them are very sympathetic.”

Public comment for the development application closes on Tuesday, March 28.

However, the group is pushing for an extension to give them more time to review it.

Mrs Webster said they had contacted other childcare centres in Orange who had told them they had vacancies for daycare for young children.

“They have placements available in their 0-2 rooms so they can’t understand why they [the proposed childcare centre] are offering places.”

An Orange City Council spokesman said the application and the public comments would be reviewed before deciding on the next stage of the application.

The Central Western Daily has been unable to contact the company behind the development application for comment.